Jun 24, 2011 07:13 GMT  ·  By

One of the most interesting technologies that AMD's upcoming desktop Llano processors bring to the table is their support for Hybrid CrossFireX, but not all discrete graphics cards are compatible with all APUs, so in this article we will detail the dual-GPU setups that are available for each A-Series chip.

Before starting, it should be noted that Hybrid CrossFireX allows the system to use both the integrated Radeon HD core found inside the Llano accelerated processing units and a discrete GPU in order to improve the PC's graphics performance.

While this sounds simple in theory, AMD's implementation of the technology can be extremely confusing, as only certain APU-GPU combinations are compatible.

To make matters even more complicated, the dual graphics options available also differ depending on the type of system that is in use, so AMD provided two dual graphics configuration tables, one for desktop PCs and one for all-in-one machines.

To give you an example of how complex AMD's Hybrid CrossFireX technology actually is, desktop computers built using A4-Series APUs are only compatible with the Radeon HD 6350 (DDR3) and the Radeon HD 6450 (GDDR5), while AIO PCs using the same APUs work with the DDR3-only versions of the Radeon HD 6350 and HD 6450, but also support the Radeon HD 6550.

Things are just as confusing with the A6 and A8-Series APUs, and all this gets even more complicated if you happen to take a look at the names of the resulting graphics combinations (an A8-series APU combined with a HD 6670 discrete GPU is called HD 6730A2 in an AIO PC and HD 6990D2 in desktops).

All in all, I would have to say that even though the Hybrid CrossFireX support introduced by AMD in its Llano chips sounds a great idea in theory, the implementation found in the desktop APUs is much too confusing and should be simplified a great deal in future iterations of the technology.

You can take a look for yourselves at the dual graphics combinations supported by desktop Llano APUs in the table provided by VR-Zone, but I doubt this would make a lot of sense to any of you.

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AMD Llano Hybrid CrossFireX options explained
Supported dual graphics combinations for AMD's desktop Llano APUs
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